


Family

by Sofiel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Families of Choice, Family, Gen, OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 15:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sofiel/pseuds/Sofiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry gets a chance to know what it feels like to be in a family the summer of Sirius' death when one of the neighborhood ladies takes a liking to him. No pairings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling. I make no money from this piece of fanfiction.
> 
> Summary: Harry gets a chance to know what it feels like to be in a family the summer of Sirius' death when one of the neighborhood ladies takes a liking to him.
> 
> Straight from my ff.net account.

When Mrs. Number 7, a woman in her late thirties, had seen the Potter boy walking around like a zombie she had nearly had a panic attack. She called up Mrs. Numbers 8, 11, and 3 to see what they would do in such a situation. She got back some juicy information regarding the small boy and quickly called up Mrs. Number 15 from Magnolia Crescent to tell her what had happened and what was currently happening with the Potter boy.

As it turned out, Mrs. Number 15 had already known that the Potter boy's godfather had indeed just died and that the boy was probably just in mourning. She called Mrs. Number 3 and told her about how the Dursleys were just leaving the poor boy to mourn by himself and that they weren't even helping the boy cope with something of that magnitude. She received calls back telling her that the boy had it coming to him and then rumors had begun; rumors about cupboards under stairs and about scholarships to prestigious schools in Scotland that Dudley had not been allowed to go to. After the rumor of the school in Scotland Mrs. Number 5, who had a daughter that had gone to school with the Potter boy as well as Dudley Dursley, had mentioned how amazingly well behaved the child had been in primary school. She had no idea that the child was 'disturbed' as Petunia had said. The boy looked completely fine the many times that she had passed by him, a bit shy, but what child wasn't at that age?

When the news got to Mrs. Number 7 that the Potter boy wasn't a threat and was in need of a talk from someone who had lost just as much as he did, she did the only thing that she could think to do in a situation like this.

"Hello there."

Harry looked up from his swinging and stared into bright blue eyes attached to a pale face with a head full of black hair. He recoiled back when he noticed that it was the woman from a few doors down. "Yes?" he said cautiously he was ready to bolt if the woman decided to call the police on him.

"Oh, I'm Heather Sanford, from Number 7," the black haired woman began with a bright smile as she pointed over to her house, which was only across from the neighborhood play area. "I couldn't help but notice that you've been sitting here for the last three hours."

Harry nodded and stood up. "Sorry. I'll leave."

"Oh, no, no," she said as she held onto his upper arm with a manicured hand. "I didn't mean that I wanted you to leave. I just wanted to know if you wanted something to drink since it's so hot out today."

Harry blinked in confusion as he looked at her. "W-what?" he looked around him as if looking for someone else that she could be talking to, which was silly since she had her hand on him and not anyone else. "Um… I don't think Aunt Petunia would—"

"Oh, hush about that," she interrupted as she began to drag the smaller boy towards her house. "I need some company and you're all alone out here, probably getting heat stroke. So, really, it's like we're helping each other out."

Harry let the older woman drag him out of pure confusion. He had no idea what exactly was going on and he feared the woman was going to kidnap him or something of the sort. Of what little he had seen of the television he knew that things like this happened rather frequently, which was startling to say the least. He looked over to the other houses and saw that some women were looking out of their curtained windows.

"The neighbors are watching," Harry mumbled as he looked over to her.

"Let them," she smiled brightly as she pushed open the door to her house and guided Harry into the cool room. He marveled at how cool it was inside compared to the outside and looked around for the source of the cooling breeze. "The kitchen's right this way."

Harry followed her and stared at all the pictures that were up on the walls as well as the furniture around the room. Everything looked like it hadn't been used in a while and he worried that Mrs. Sanford was indeed turning out to be a kidnapper.

"Sorry about the dust," she apologized as she took down two glasses and a pitcher down to rinse before she began making lemonade. "I've been meaning to do some serious cleaning the last couple of days but the jetlag has been killing me and I never find the time to do anything."

Harry blinked as she turned around and began slicing lemons. He looked away from the knife for fear that the dark haired woman would use it to slice him open instead of the lemons. He shuddered as the thought went through his head. He needed to get the morbid thoughts out of his head before he had a panic attack.

"So, tell me a little about yourself, Harry," Mrs. Sanford said as she began to squeeze the lemons, by hand! The woman didn't even use a juicer. How odd.

Harry grasped at straws as he tried to figure out something to tell her that wouldn't compromise any of his secrets. "I'm sixteen," he volunteered lamely and all he got was a raised brow ordering him to continue. "Um, my parents worked for the Ministry."

"Oh, really?" Mrs. Sanford said as she squeezed the last lemon half. "What department of the Ministry did they work in?"

"I-I, well," Harry looked panicked before he settled on the truth. "I can't say." Well, partial truth.

Mrs. Sanford's eyes turned big as something clicked in her head. Petunia had said that her sister and her husband had been blown up and that they were drunkards but she doubted that. With what Harry had just told her about his parents working in the Ministry she came to the conclusion that they must have been important parts of the government if they had been killed as they had. Or maybe they were part of MI6 and had been killed by an enemy of the state. Her head spun with ideas as she stared at the small boy and his grim expression.

"I have my mother's eyes," Harry said as he tried to get the woman out of her thoughts. It wouldn't be good if she began to ask questions. "I look like my father mostly, though."

"Really?" Mrs. Sanford was stirring the lemonade with a wooden spoon as she looked over to him. "I wish it were like that with my kids. Both of them look just like me… not an inch of their father in them," she sounded quite annoyed as she said this and put some ice cubes into the glasses. "Well, Phillip, he's my eldest son, I call him Pip, though," she got off track as a smile came to her face and she put the lemonade in front of Harry. "Yes, well, Phillip looks just like me but I swear his attitude is entirely his father's. That boy is too adventurous for his own good, I tell you."

"Oh," Harry said and looked over to the fridge where there was a new photo hanging on a magnet of Mrs. Sanford carrying a baby in her arms with a man with brown hair and hazel eyes.

"So, you don't have any siblings at all?" Mrs. Sanford asked and Harry shook his head and she nodded as if satisfied with that answer. "I couldn't possibly be able to get through life without my siblings that's for sure, I can't imagine what your life was like without a younger brother or even an older one."

"I've managed," Harry said quietly and took a sip of the sweet lemonade. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you being nice?"

"I'm always nice," Mrs. Sanford said with a frown. "I'm not usually here during the summers which is why I don't know much about you or why I'm not as much of a gossiper as the rest of the neighborhood. But I supposed my maternal instincts kicked in when you were outside. Mind you, I was terrified of even going near you because the neighborhood ladies say that you're just a hoodlum and that you wouldn't think twice about hurting someone."

Harry set the glass down and looked up into her blue eyes. "Then why did you approach me?"

"Do you want me to be honest or just tell you something else?"

"I would like you to be honest," Harry said as he looked away.

Mrs. Sanford's cheeks burned red as she looked away. "I thought you were my son. You two look a lot alike and the first thought that came to my mind was that you were my Pip. And then I took a good look at you and noticed the height difference and your eyes were a different color. Then I called up some of the ladies in the neighborhood asking about you and they told me all kinds of awful things about you that I just couldn't believe. I probably just reacted like that because thoughts of Pip were just running through my head."

"So, you wouldn't have taken a second look at me if I hadn't looked like your son?" Harry asked with a small smile. "And what kinds of things did you hear from the ladies in the neighborhood?"

"St. Brutus?" Mrs. Sanford said with a snort as she took a large gulp of her lemonade and slammed the glass down, startling Harry half to death. "Ha! I've gone to St. Brutus to do art lessons and not once did I see you there. And then there was a rumor about you being some kind of Satanist that sucked out children's souls."

"I hadn't heard that one yet," Harry said with a mumble as he tried to calm his beating heart from the shock the woman had just given him. "I'm not a Satanist… though I don't attend church."

Mrs. Sanford began to laugh as she saw Harry's face twist into different emotions. "I didn't think you were. Mrs. Fields, from Number 15 up in Magnolia, said that you had never done anything of the sort and that you were a quiet and shy child from what she remembered of you in primary school."

"Oh," Harry said in shock.

"It seems a lot more people than you thought believe you to be a good kid," Mrs. Sanford said as she poured more lemonade into her glass and continued to ask Harry questions about himself.

*

Harry blinked as he opened the door and Mrs. Sanford was on the other side with a bright smile and a baby on her hip. "Hi, Harry. How are you this lovely morning?"

Harry blinked some more as he stared at the hazel eyes of the dark haired baby. "Fine, thank you. Is there something wrong, Mrs. Sanford?"

"No, of course not," Mrs. Sanford said as she adjusted her baby on her hip and the child protested. "I was just wondering if you were busy today?"

"Um, no," Harry mumbled as his eyes left the baby for a second to address her. "Why?"

"I want you to meet my family," Mrs. Sanford said brightly and the baby began to pull on her dark hair. "Alex, stop that," she said as she detangled the small hands from her hair and poked the baby on his nose. "We're going to the zoo and I want you to come along."

Harry frowned as he stared at her and then inside to where his relatives were watching TV and ignoring him. "Is that really a good idea?"

"Do you want me to ask Petunia for you?" she asked as she stepped forward deposited the baby in Harry's arms and then went inside the house as if she'd lived there her entire life. Harry didn't know whether to be shocked at her actions or freaked out that he didn't know the proper way to hold a baby.

Alex as if sensing his discomfort decided then and there that he would make Harry's predicament all the worse by wriggling like a fish out of water. Harry panicked and held the baby to his chest to stop the fussing which just made the baby wriggle some more. He nearly shrieked when he felt a sharp tug on the back of his head as little Alex pulled on his hair.

"Alex, is it? Please, don't do that," Harry said as he maneuvered Alex around so that he could hold him with one hand and tried to detangle his hair at the same time.

"She has agreed," Mrs. Sanford said as she stood beside Harry with a bright smile on her face. "Come along, then. I want you to meet the rest of the family."

Harry didn't know what to say as he followed her with the baby still in his arms. It wasn't a long walk to her house as the houses on Privet Drive were a lot closer together than the houses in Magnolia Crescent, but Harry still felt like he had walked a mile as the baby struggled with him the entire time.

"Mark, I'm back," Mrs. Sanford shouted into the house as she held the door open for Harry. "Pip, Dodo, come say 'hello' to Harry."

Harry nearly had a heart attack as he heard the loud thumping coming from the stairs as two people bounded into the room. He nearly fainted when he saw what could only be his mirror image, except taller and with a better fashion sense.

"Harry, love, these are my kids: Phillip and Dorothea," Mrs. Sanford said as she motioned to the teenager and then over to the five year old girl beside him. They both had dark hair and were just as pale as their mother. While Phillip had hazel eyes it seemed that his sister had a light brown eye color that made her oval face seem even more delicate. "You've already met Alexander as he's eating your hair at the moment."

"Hello," Harry said breathily as he didn't take his eyes off of the boy across from him. "I'm Harry Potter."

Dorothea made it her mission to bounce her way over to Harry and shake his hand wildly. "I'm Dorothea… you can call me Dodo 'cause you're cool."

"Um, okay. Dodo, it's a pleasure to meet you," Harry said with a small smile as he tried to get his hand back to be able to hold the baby correctly. Harry blinked as Phillip took the baby away from him and raised his hand and shook Harry's with a small smile of his own.

"For the love of—" Mrs. Sanford grumbled as she stomped up the stairs yelling for Mark. "Will you put that away for a second?! Come down here so that you can meet Harry."

A door closed and Harry blinked in near surprise as a brown haired man came half way down the stairs and leaned down to kiss Mrs. Sanford on the lips with a bright smile on his face. He wasn't used to people being so public with their physical affection. Mrs. Weasley and Mr. Weasley had never kissed like that, or even his aunt or uncle. Mark bounded the rest of the way down the stairs and gripped Harry's hand in his as he shook it up and down. "I'm Marcus Sanford, but you can call me Mark."

"Hello, sir," Harry said as he tried to not wince at the strong grip the man had.

"Are we all ready to go, then?" Mark asked with a megawatt smile that had Harry more than a little frightened.

"No, not yet," Phillip said as he handed Alex over to his father and proceeded to drag Harry up the stairs. Harry looked back for help from Mrs. Sanford but she just smiled and giggled to herself. "We'll be down in a sec."

Harry tried to not look panicked as Phillip locked the door behind him and crossed his arms in front of him. "Take your clothes off," Harry's eyes widened and he took a step back as Phillip stood there waiting for him to do as he had said. "Don't look at me like that. Now take your clothes off, while I go look for more suitable clothes for you to wear."

Harry's eyes still looked like saucers and he had a hard time comprehending exactly what was going on. He looked towards Phillip who was looking through what appeared to be a giant closet that no male should ever have. "I already have clothes—"

"Those clothes look like they've seen better days," Phillip grumbled as he yanked a hanger from his closet and threw it at the bed and then went over to a corner of the closet and took out a pair of trousers and threw them on the bed as well. He turned around and put his fists on his hips as his face contorted in annoyance. "Don't tell me you're shy! We've got the same equipment there's nothing to worry about!"

Harry was still too freaked out to do much of anything except to stare at the taller teen. He looked at the clothes on the bed and then at Phillip, who just raised a brow at him. "I don't think that—"

"Yes, yes, whatever," Phillip said with a roll of his eyes. "There's a bathroom through that door, you can change in there. If you don't come out in five minutes I'll hunt you down and I assure you that it won't be pretty."

Harry looked at the door that he had motioned to and then over to the clothes. After a swift glare he picked up the clothes and dashed into the bathroom. He looked down at what he had in his hands and sighed.

 _Why is some Muggle boy bossing me around?_ He thought bitterly as he started to take his clothes off to put on Phillip's. They were okay in size, a million times smaller than Dudley's cast offs, but still a bit big on Harry. The trousers kept riding down his hips rather dangerously and he was afraid that they were going to expose his underwear if he didn't put a belt on soon. The shirt he actually liked since it didn't hang off of one shoulder or looked like a sleeping gown. He looked down at his feet and sighed as he began the tedious task of putting on his dragon hide boots on again. He had begun to wear them all the time after his trainers had just up and died on him after a rather bad excursion in trying to weed the garden two weeks back.

He fell back on his bottom when the door slammed open and Phillip stood there with a smirk on his face. He looked Harry over and his smirked widened as he waited patiently for Harry to continue tying up his boots. "That's more like it."

"Why are you making me do this?" Harry asked as he stood up and then swiftly pulled his trousers up. Phillip raised a brow and his eyes went straight to Harry's hands.

Phillip shrugged as he motioned to the bedroom and that they should leave. He followed behind Harry as Harry stopped in the middle of the room. "You're not going to leave without a belt, right?"

Harry nodded as he clutched the trousers tighter. "They're falling off."

"They won't fall off. They're supposed to be like that," Phillip said as he motioned Harry towards him. He held onto Harry's hips and began looping the belt around his waist. "Your bottom would have prevented that from happening," he continued with a smirk as he smacked said bottom and Harry made a noise in the back of his throat as he pushed Phillip away from him. "You're rather easy to rile up, Harry," he said with a laugh as he pulled Harry towards the door.

"And you're a pervert," Harry muttered as he tried to dislodge his wrist from Phillip's hold on him.

"Are we all ready to go now?" Mark asked as he flashed car keys at the two teens. They nodded and the older man motioned them out the door so he could lock up.

*

Harry wasn't sure whether to feel uncomfortable as they made their way through the different exhibits with a giggling Dorothea and a rather amused Phillip or to give in to his urges to just enjoy this little family outing.

"How old are you anyway, Harry?" Phillip asked as they entered the very familiar snake house.

"I turned sixteen two weeks ago," Harry mumbled as he tried to tune out the annoyed hisses of the snake. "How old are you?"

"I just turned seventeen," Phillip said as he waggled his eyebrows at Harry who just rolled his eyes and called him a pervert. "You're a bit of a shrimp for a sixteen year old."

Harry glared at him but didn't comment as Dorothea demanded to be lifted so that she could see the boa constrictor. Harry did as the five year old demanded and let her put her face close to the glass but not so close that her breath fogged up the glass. He remembered the last time something like that had happened and the Brazilian snake was let out of its glass cage.

"Its scales are as green as your eyes!" Dodo squealed as she turned around in Harry's arms and cupped his face to stare at his eyes. "My eyes aren't as hazely as Pip's or Dad's… they're more like honey than like the underside of leaves… but yours are like grass or like the leaves when it rains. It's so cool."

"Thank you," Harry said with a smile as he put her down and held onto her hand to go out of the snake house. They joined the rest of the family on the outside as Mark contemplated where to go next.

"Let's go see the pandas, Daddy," Dodo said as she pointed to a section of the zoo she was particularly fond of.

Harry winced as he looked to where she pointed. He remembered a year and a half ago Hermione shrieking to him about pandas and how the London Zoo had given back the pandas that they had from China and Berlin. She had gone on and on about it and until this day Harry hadn't thought much of it because he had never actually seen a panda before.

"I don't think the zoo has pandas anymore," Mark commented with a hum as he looked at the sign that led to the gorillas. "Maybe we can see the gorillas instead, honey," he suggested pointing towards the sign.

"What happened to Ming-Ming and Bao-Bao?" Dodo asked as she held onto Harry and Phillip walked on Harry's other side. "Did they go back to China to be with their Mummy Panda and Daddy Panda?"

"Yup," Mark said with a bright smile and looked over her head to give Harry a half smile. He obviously didn't know much about the pandas and didn't want to cause a screaming fit from his daughter.

*

Harry stared at the black and white fuzz invading his vision as he ate the sandwich that Mrs. Sanford—"call me Heather, Harry"—had given him. He blinked and moved his head back to get his vision back in focus. There staring at him was a plush black and white tiger with blue-green button eyes. He looked up to the hand that the plush toy was in and up the arm to look into Phillip's smiling hazel eyes.

"What?" Harry asked as he swallowed his mouthful of sandwich. "Are you kidnapping your sister's toys for some sort of ransom?"

Phillip laughed and shook his head and sat himself next to Harry with the tiger still in his hands. "No, silly… though, I should probably try that next time she thinks of getting into my room without permission," he looked thoughtful as he hummed into the fur of the plush toy. "This," he continued as he showed Harry the toy, "is a present from Dodo and me. She saw that you were quite taken by the white tigers and we decided to get you one."

"It's a bit small for a white tiger," Harry said with a small smile as he eyed the fuzz ball.

"See, that's what I said," Phillip said with a nod and a look of pure superiority towards his scowling younger sister. "Dodo said that you would want the smaller ones because you're a boy… but it was really because she wanted the bigger one for herself."

Harry looked over to Dodo and smiled at her. He spread his arms and she grinned and ran into his arms to plop herself on his lap. "Thank you very much, Dodo. That was very thoughtful of you." Dodo then proceeded to stick her tongue out at her brother who growled at her.

"How come she gets a hug and I don't?" Phillip pouted and gave Harry the puppy eyes. "I was the one that got the tiger."

Harry sighed and unlatched one arm from around Dodo and offered it to Phillip. Said teen launched himself at Harry just as Dodo had done and clung to Harry's side like a little leech. Harry gurgled in the back of his throat as the two squeezed him tighter than was necessary.

"I can't breathe," he mumbled after a while and after Heather had taken an unnecessary amount of pictures.

Phillip laughed when they finally detached themselves from Harry and ruffled Harry's hair much to the smaller teen's annoyance.

*

Phillip stared at Harry as he slept and then over to Dodo who was lying half on him. The green-eyed teen was staying with them while the Dursleys went off to Mallorca to have a vacation with Aunt Marge. Harry hadn't complained and Heather and Mark jumped at the chance to have Harry over as they thought that their kids needed to be more social with the neighborhood kids.

"Kids, it's time for dinner," Heather called out from the kitchen and then popped her head into the living room when she received no answer from them. She frowned as she stared over to the couch where Harry and Dodo were sleeping like babes. "I almost feel bad about waking them up," Heather sighed as she put her head to the side and thought about the consequences about waking up two people that always needed at least an hour before they were fully awake. "They need to eat."

Phillip looked over to his mother and then over to the couch. He got a wicked grin on his face and then plopped a pillow straight at Harry's head. Harry shot straight off the couch and landed in a heap with Dodo on top of him. He groaned and Dodo looked about ready to start bawling. "Mergh…"

"Dinner's ready," Phillip said above Harry with a smile firmly planted on his face. "You didn't wake up and Mum didn't want to wake you up so I did it for her."

Harry mumbled something that could have been 'arse' but really sounded like 'plarse' and Phillip cackled and pranced into the kitchen.

*

Harry's eyes opened abruptly and he tried to regain his breathing as he woke up from a rather nasty nightmare. He looked to his side, where Phillip was sleeping like the dead, and tried to get out of bed without waking him. It had been Heather's idea since they didn't have a guest room and Phillip had refused to sleep on the floor.

"Where are you going?"

Harry froze at the voice and looked over to the bed to stare at the hazel eyes that were staring intently at him. "I was going to the loo."

"What was your nightmare about?" Phillip asked without moving from his place on the bed but staring intently at Harry. "You've been waking up the same way for the last couple of nights."

"It's nothing," Harry mumbled and looked away.

Phillip sat up and gave Harry a long suffering sigh and reached out for him and pulled him back to sit on the bed. "I don't think it's nothing. These dreams are obviously bothering you and I want to know what they're all about; maybe you'll feel better once you've spoken about it."

"I don't think it's necessary," Harry mumbled as he tried to detach himself from Phillip. "It's just a dream. It doesn't mean anything."

Phillip hummed and waited patiently for Harry to say something else. "You're not going to go back to sleep after that, I know that much. You might as well start talking because I'm not going back to sleep until you tell me something."

They stayed like that for what seemed like forever but was only half an hour. Harry glared at Phillip and pursed his lips to keep himself from saying something that he would regret later on.

"We can very easily repeat this tomorrow," Phillip mumbled as he leaned against the headboard. He had moved so that he was more comfortable and then had hoisted Harry over the bed to sit next to him.

"It was about my godfather," Harry mumbled and Phillip hummed and looked at him so that he could continue. "He died a couple of months ago and I saw it."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Phillip said and draped an arm around Harry's shoulders and brought him close.

"He wasn't supposed to die," Harry said harshly and fisted his hands on his lap. "I was tricked into it and then everybody was already fighting… It was his cousin, Bellatrix that killed him. She was laughing."

"How were you tricked into it?" Phillip asked with a frown. "You shouldn't be part of something like that…"

Harry huddled closer to Phillip to try and hide himself under him to avoid answering but he knew that sooner or later he would have to answer. He sniffled and wiped at his nose. "When my parents were killed I was the only one that survived. There was this man who had started a terrorist group that went around killing people if they weren't of pureblood status… you know like aristocracy and stuff. My father was one of these 'purebloods' while my mother wasn't. But he thought that if he got rid of me everything would be better for him and his plan to purify the world."

"Like another Hitler or something?" Phillip interrupted and Harry frowned as he thought about it.

"It's very similar to it," Harry mumbled. "He isn't really out to get anyone at the moment, though. He wants to make sure that he kills me so that he can continue to 'purify our world of dirty blood,' he's not really going to move forward until I'm dead, or as good as dead."

"Then how come they aren't looking for this guy right now? You have some psycho out for your blood and you're living with the most annoying human beings on the planet, who would sooner sell you out than do any of the hard work themselves," Phillip growled and tightened his hold on Harry.

He looked down at Harry who sighed and put his forehead on his raised knees. "It's not that simple. The Dursleys' house is the only place that I'm really safe from the terrorists…"

Phillip patted Harry's hair down as he tried to figure out how to help him out even though he didn't know how. "I can't say that I know what you're going through, because I don't. It's not something that happens to a kid, Harry. Hell, it rarely happens to adults. You can't be left to handle this alone. This shouldn't be a burden for you to bare."

Harry sighed and hummed against Phillip. Even though he knew that it **_was_** his burden to bear and that he **_was_** going to handle this alone, it was nice to hear that he didn't have to. It didn't matter that it was a lie or that it was just senseless rambling from a muggle boy that didn't know any better, he felt better just listening to somebody tell him so. It was a weight off his heart and he smiled as it was lifted and rested his head against Phillip's shoulder.

*

Harry looked at the family as they stood in front of him. Alex was playing with Harry's hair as he was wont to do whenever the teen carried him. Dodo had begun to cry and was being consoled by her parents that she would see Harry again soon and not to cry.

"Are you coming back for Christmas break?" Phillip asked as Harry handed Alex over to him. "And make sure that you send post… even if you have to do it with messenger bird, you make sure to send post to us."

Harry laughed and nodded. Dodo ran over to him and hugged him and handed him the white tiger that they had gotten at the zoo for him. Mark and Heather were next and they gave Harry a big hug and made him promise to write whenever he had the chance. Phillip was the last and he gave Harry such a bone-crushing hug that it nearly took Harry's breath away. He coughed when he was finally able to breathe again.

"Make sure that you don't flake on those letters, Harry," Phillip said as he ruffled his hair in a way that annoyed Harry to no end.

"I'll do that," Harry mumbled and then smacked his hand away, "pervert."

"And here I thought you got over that," Phillip gave him a fake pout.

Harry laughed and waved goodbye to the Sanford family. He dragged his trolley behind him and Hedwig hooted goodbye to the family as well. He gave them one last glance before he went around the corner and disappeared into the crowd that would lead him to the passageway that would take him to the hidden platform.


End file.
